Suspected naxal Nandakumar arrested

SHIMOGA: N. Nandakumar, alias Rangappa (38), suspected to have been involved in naxal activity in the border villages of Raichur taluk in the 1990s and who later was active in the Western Ghats region, has been arrested, the Shimoga Police announced on Tuesday.

He was nabbed by the Hyderabad Police when he was allegedly attempting to meet naxal leaders in the Andhra capital, and then handed over to the Shimoga Police. He was taken into custody by a team led by Shimoga Deputy Superintendent of Police Shekharappa which went to Hyderabad last week. He is likely to be produced before the court in a day or two. The police claim to have extracted crucial information from him in connection with naxal activities in the State.

Nandakumar is said to have married Asha, who was among the four persons arrested last year somewhere on the Andhra Pradesh border. He had taken an active role in the fighting eviction of forest dwellers in the Kudremukh National Park in Chikmagalur. He was wanted by the Sadar Bazar Police in Raichur in connection with the murder of Siddangouda in 1997 and a stone-throwing incident during the inauguration of a police station at Yapaldinni village of naxal-prone border areas of Raichur taluk.

After the death of Bhaskar, a naxal leader from Srikakulam in an encounter in 1987, Nandakumar is said to have shifted his activities to the Western Ghats.